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So today I ended up watching the Flu, since the JFF movie I wanted to watch was sold out and I can't afford taking the much later slot.
First thing first, if you've read the interview where Jang Hyuk talked about the movie and his role being very emotional? YES, it really was. It's very emotional and struck you to the core to the point by the end of the movie, my whole body shook with tense emotion.
So yeah, what follows after this is my thoughts and review of the movie. And I don't think people should mind any spoilers mentioned here. Since no amount of spoilers could ever spoiled your experience while watching this movie. There's a lot of message about humanity... that you just can't help but be saddened. Even if this movie was fictional and not based on real outbreak, it gave you an insight on how bad it could have happened.
The movie began at a port in Hong Kong, where some shady characters are stuffing some illegal immigrants into a shipping container to smuggle into Korea. At this point, there was one immigrant that was coughing... but no one minded about it and closed the container to be shipped away. Much later in Bundang, Korea... when a pair of smugglers came to collect the immigrants, they found out that most of them ended up dead with just one survivor. While doing so, they inevitably unleashed the H5N1 avian flu to the people of Bundang.
Unaware of anything, the people of Bundang were going about their lives as usual. There was an accident in the morning and a car ended up falling into a hole in a construction site. A group of rescue workers were called to extract the driver of the car before the car could fall deeper into the cavern. Rescue worker, Kang Jigu (Jang Hyuk) took up on that task and rescued a doctor named Kim In-Hye (Soo Ae) to safety. That was the start of fate that bound the two of them. There was a minor romance thing going on about that but at this point it was not really important until much later.
Jigu later recovered In-Hae's belonging from her fallen car and ended up meeting her daughter Kim Mirre. At this point you may think that this was a start of a new relationship, I mean, dashing rescue worker and pretty single mother... But let's not forget that this is a disaster movie. XD
The two smugglers brought the surviving immigrant, Monssai to the city but somehow in the middle of it, Monssai escaped from them. One of the smugglers started showing signs of illness and went to a clinic to get some meds. It was here that the infection started to spread, unknowingly by the smugglers or the surrounding people. Much later, one of the smugglers became really ill with rashes all over his body... and gradually coughed out blood. That made the other smuggler, Byung Ki (Lee Hee Joon) to take his brother to the hospital. It was then, when the hospital found out about illness.
In-Hye was called back to hospital to check on the smuggler and noticed the signs of his illness. After rummaging through his things, she found a video taken of the shipping container full of dead immigrants. By then more patients started coming in and called for an emergency lockdown of the Bundang area, as the outbreak rapidly killed and infect the people of Bundang.
Things turned to worse when Mirre ended up being infected due to her encounter with Monssai. Due to that, In-Hye tried her best to try saving her and finding the vaccine that could cure her.
----
It really struck you, how in the face of crisis... different people would end up taking the most ridiculous actions out of their own selfish desire. Here there are two different factions; the doctors/rescue workers who only wanted to save and protect the people from the infections and politicians who worried more about damage to their own position than working to find ways to contain the outbreak. At some point you'll be frustrated at the politicians who only cared about maintaining their political reputations than protecting the people they were supposed to be protecting.
Even worse, once the aid from overseas arrived... drastic measures of separating the infected people and the uninfected people using military power was used. Because it seemed that the outbreak killed people faster that the researchers managed to create a vaccine to counter the virus, they even went as far as taking away the still living infected people, wrapped them up like dead people and dump all of them in a pile before burning them to death. The image was very grotesque and so inhuman you can't help feeling sick about it. Not to mention how the citizens were lied to and being told that the infected people were being taken for treatment, despite the reality that they were actually taken away to be killed without mercy. Just because they unfortunately ended up being infected with the deadly virus.
The scene made me recall the scenes from Torchwood: Miracle Day, where as a drastic measure to control the population that stopped dying--the critically injured/sick people (Category 1) that still cannot die, were put to death in an incinerator. Both scenarios were very horrifying.
There was another moving scene where I really understood what Jang Hyuk meant about it being emotional; as Jigu tried his best to protect Mirre, In-hye struggling to find the cure to the virus and the President who fought his way out against his own people as well as the foreign advisors who tried to take the easy way out of the crisis by sacrificing the people of Bundang. It was really heartbreaking to see how some people could easily gave the order to kill, just so to contain the panicked people inside the area. Despite the fact the rioting people were just as scared of dying because of the outbreak and wanting to reach safety.
The movie really showed you how disasters like this could turn some people into being courageous or just downright selfish to the point they could disregard normal human rights and do despicable things. There really a lot of different conflicts happening in the movie... I just can't cover them all. It was really moving, the cast really did well.
You may want to read other reviews about the movie that covered a bit more than what I mentioned.
First thing first, if you've read the interview where Jang Hyuk talked about the movie and his role being very emotional? YES, it really was. It's very emotional and struck you to the core to the point by the end of the movie, my whole body shook with tense emotion.
So yeah, what follows after this is my thoughts and review of the movie. And I don't think people should mind any spoilers mentioned here. Since no amount of spoilers could ever spoiled your experience while watching this movie. There's a lot of message about humanity... that you just can't help but be saddened. Even if this movie was fictional and not based on real outbreak, it gave you an insight on how bad it could have happened.
The movie began at a port in Hong Kong, where some shady characters are stuffing some illegal immigrants into a shipping container to smuggle into Korea. At this point, there was one immigrant that was coughing... but no one minded about it and closed the container to be shipped away. Much later in Bundang, Korea... when a pair of smugglers came to collect the immigrants, they found out that most of them ended up dead with just one survivor. While doing so, they inevitably unleashed the H5N1 avian flu to the people of Bundang.
Unaware of anything, the people of Bundang were going about their lives as usual. There was an accident in the morning and a car ended up falling into a hole in a construction site. A group of rescue workers were called to extract the driver of the car before the car could fall deeper into the cavern. Rescue worker, Kang Jigu (Jang Hyuk) took up on that task and rescued a doctor named Kim In-Hye (Soo Ae) to safety. That was the start of fate that bound the two of them. There was a minor romance thing going on about that but at this point it was not really important until much later.
Jigu later recovered In-Hae's belonging from her fallen car and ended up meeting her daughter Kim Mirre. At this point you may think that this was a start of a new relationship, I mean, dashing rescue worker and pretty single mother... But let's not forget that this is a disaster movie. XD
The two smugglers brought the surviving immigrant, Monssai to the city but somehow in the middle of it, Monssai escaped from them. One of the smugglers started showing signs of illness and went to a clinic to get some meds. It was here that the infection started to spread, unknowingly by the smugglers or the surrounding people. Much later, one of the smugglers became really ill with rashes all over his body... and gradually coughed out blood. That made the other smuggler, Byung Ki (Lee Hee Joon) to take his brother to the hospital. It was then, when the hospital found out about illness.
In-Hye was called back to hospital to check on the smuggler and noticed the signs of his illness. After rummaging through his things, she found a video taken of the shipping container full of dead immigrants. By then more patients started coming in and called for an emergency lockdown of the Bundang area, as the outbreak rapidly killed and infect the people of Bundang.
Things turned to worse when Mirre ended up being infected due to her encounter with Monssai. Due to that, In-Hye tried her best to try saving her and finding the vaccine that could cure her.
----
It really struck you, how in the face of crisis... different people would end up taking the most ridiculous actions out of their own selfish desire. Here there are two different factions; the doctors/rescue workers who only wanted to save and protect the people from the infections and politicians who worried more about damage to their own position than working to find ways to contain the outbreak. At some point you'll be frustrated at the politicians who only cared about maintaining their political reputations than protecting the people they were supposed to be protecting.
Even worse, once the aid from overseas arrived... drastic measures of separating the infected people and the uninfected people using military power was used. Because it seemed that the outbreak killed people faster that the researchers managed to create a vaccine to counter the virus, they even went as far as taking away the still living infected people, wrapped them up like dead people and dump all of them in a pile before burning them to death. The image was very grotesque and so inhuman you can't help feeling sick about it. Not to mention how the citizens were lied to and being told that the infected people were being taken for treatment, despite the reality that they were actually taken away to be killed without mercy. Just because they unfortunately ended up being infected with the deadly virus.
The scene made me recall the scenes from Torchwood: Miracle Day, where as a drastic measure to control the population that stopped dying--the critically injured/sick people (Category 1) that still cannot die, were put to death in an incinerator. Both scenarios were very horrifying.
There was another moving scene where I really understood what Jang Hyuk meant about it being emotional; as Jigu tried his best to protect Mirre, In-hye struggling to find the cure to the virus and the President who fought his way out against his own people as well as the foreign advisors who tried to take the easy way out of the crisis by sacrificing the people of Bundang. It was really heartbreaking to see how some people could easily gave the order to kill, just so to contain the panicked people inside the area. Despite the fact the rioting people were just as scared of dying because of the outbreak and wanting to reach safety.
The movie really showed you how disasters like this could turn some people into being courageous or just downright selfish to the point they could disregard normal human rights and do despicable things. There really a lot of different conflicts happening in the movie... I just can't cover them all. It was really moving, the cast really did well.
You may want to read other reviews about the movie that covered a bit more than what I mentioned.
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